Huawei unveils vision for smart communities in Africa

JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – HUAWEI, has restated its vision to support and promote the concept of smart communities in Africa, where more than half a billion people will be subscribed to a mobile service by 2020.“Huawei’s vision for IoT is to enable and promote a smart society, where everything is intelligent, connected and sensing. A network should be in place to unlock the connectivity that empowers a smart community,” said Huawei South Africa’s, Director for Strategic Partnerships and New Technologies, Dr Bello Moussa. He was presenting the key note speech at the GSMA Mobile 360–Africa conference taking place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.This year’s event is focused on putting mobile connectivity at the forefront of national digital strategies and leveraging the power of mobile to build smart communities and a digital Africa, inclusive for all. Moussa said the internet of things (IoT) market in Africa is “huge.”Global ICT consulting and advisory firm International Data Corporation,forecast IoT revenues in the Middle East and Africa will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 21,3 percent over the next four years to total more than $14,3 billion in 2020.This growth would be led by IoT investment in manufacturing, transportation and utilities.As a platform provider, Huawei sees its role as a key enabler for the growth and development of IoT on the continent.“Once deployed, IoT has the potential to create socio-economic growth in Africa. Many organisations are either already using or planning to implement IoT in their operations,” Moussa said. Huawei recently won a GSMA award for its NB-IoT solution.NB-IoT is widely accepted as the best solution for Africa because the technology supports low-powered wide-area networks, allowing for wide and deep coverage.
– CAJ News